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Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea / SUN 4-27-25 / Line in old Apple ads / Bear's counterpart on Wall Street, once / Purple yam in Philippine cuisine / One of three on the Mayflower / Tough customer for a wedding planner / Cannabis variety contrasted with indica / Longtime Japanese camera brand / Coming-of-age Pixar film of 2021
Sunday, April 27, 2025
Constructor: Jacob Reed
Relative difficulty: Easy
Theme answers:
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| "Big sleigh boss" = SANTA CLAUS |
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| "Bilbo's O:" THE ONE RING |
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| "Bee Gees boogie" = "STAYIN' ALIVE" |
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| "Hillbillies' booze" = MOONSHINE |
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| "Google log" = SEARCH HISTORY |
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| "Bolshoi shoe" = BALLET SLIPPER |
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| "High heels" = STILETTOS |
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| "She is Ellis Bell" = EMILY BRONTË |
Word of the Day: MUKBANGS (33A: Food-centric broadcasts originating in South Korea) —
A mukbang (UK: /ˈmʌkbæŋ/ MUK-bang, US: /ˈmʌkbɑːŋ/ MUK-bahng; Korean: 먹방; RR: meokbang; pronounced [mʌk̚p͈aŋ] ⓘ; lit. 'eating broadcast') is an online audiovisual broadcast in which a host consumes various quantities of food (generally from easily accessible and popular fast-food restaurant chains) while interacting with the audience or reviewing it. The genre became popular in South Korea in the early 2010s, and has become a global trend since the mid-2010s. Varieties of foods ranging from pizza to noodles are consumed in front of a camera. The purpose of mukbang is also sometimes educational, introducing viewers to regional specialties or gourmet spots.
A mukbang may be either prerecorded or streamed live through a webcast on multiple streaming platforms such as AfreecaTV, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, and Twitch. In live sessions, the mukbang host chats with the audience while the audience types in real time in the live chat-room. Eating shows are expanding their influence on internet broadcasting platforms and serve as virtual communities and as venues for active communication among internet users.
Mukbangers from many different countries have gained considerable popularity on numerous social websites and have established the mukbang as a possible viable alternative career path with a potential to earn a high income for young South Koreans. By cooking and eating food on camera for a large audience, mukbangers generate income from advertising, sponsorships, endorsements, as well as viewers' support. However, there has been growing criticism of mukbang's promotion of unhealthy eating habits, particularly eating disorders, animal cruelty and food waste. (wikipedia)
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Read that clue (20A) UPSIDE-DOWN and you get "Big sleigh boss"—not hard to decipher from there. Who else is that gonna be besides Santa? I should not be able to enter a theme answer on a Sunday with absolutely no help from crosses—with absolutely nothing else in the grid, even. Reading calculator read-outs upside-down like I'm a ten-year-old whose friend has just shown him that "58008" upside-down spells out "BOOBS" ... no, this didn't do much for me. The clues are occasionally clever, and creative, as they'd have to be, given that you have only nine letters to work with ("9” is the one numeral that does nothing, letterwise, when you turn it upside-down). I had to think a bit about "BILBO'S-O," so the clues weren't all transparent. But this was a one-trick puzzle, and once you discover the trick (which, again, for me, happened immediately), then there's not much surprise left. In short, it is impressive that anyone *could* do this, but I'm not so sure anyone *should* have. It's too easy, and not terribly fun to solve.
The fill has some major issues as well. In general, it seemed clean enough, and some of the longer stuff was occasionally interesting ("SO NOT TRUE!," MEDIA FASTS), but there was some stuff that seemed odd or dated or both. "I'M A MAC"? How old is that slogan now? Looks like it was a thing from roughly '06 to '09. Absurd. Not just bygone, but barely there to begin with. It's not even that snappy—doesn't stick with you. It's something your wordlist convinces you is valid, but ... you gotta make these judgments yourself. Not everything in your wordlist is good. For example, ON A LEAD—not good. Especially not good as clued (24A: How detectives might act). You might follow a lead, but you act on a tip. Your dog might be ON A LEAD (i.e. a leash). But even that clue wouldn't make me like ON A LEAD as fill.
But the biggest problem with the puzzle is probably the MUKBANGS / IGA cross, which I guar-an-tee you is going to baffle a non-zero number of solvers today. It's not that either of these words lacks crossworthiness. MUKBANGS in particular has a lot going for it—original, modern, full of crooked letters. And IGA Swiatek has won five Grand Slam titles, including four French Opens. But crossing two non-English names of non-universal fame at a completely uninferrable letter is always, always a bad idea, because you should never, as a constructor (or editor), allow for crosses that you *know* will be Naticks for a good number of people. You gotta do better handling your crosses. [Semi-illustrative: I knew IGA but not MUKBANGS (though maybe I'd heard of it before); my daughter (24), on the other hand, knew MUKBANGS but not IGA ... or "STAYIN' ALIVE," apparently! I know this because I just found her nearly completed puzzle downstairs, where MUKBANGS is filled in just fine, but a huge swath of "STAYIN' ALIVE," including the "A" in IGA, is missing—the only part of her puzzle that isn't completed. I'm not surprised at all that she doesn't know IGA Swiatek, but "STAYIN' ALIVE"? How could I have failed to provide her a proper Bee Gees education!?].
More:
- 49A: One of three on the Mayflower (MASTS) — me, seeing "three" and thinking of early colonial voyages: "Let's see, NINA, PINTA ... wait a minute."
- 52D: Rapper Kid ___ (CUDI) — a very tough one if you know very little about rap (I know this describes a lot of you). You can't infer anything there. Just four random letters. Huge career, a couple of Grammys, but fame-wise (and certainly crosswordwise), he's no DRE, he's no NAS, he's no ICE-T. Holy cow, this is the NYTXW debut of CUDI!? I've seen him in crosswords before—this is why I solve a variety of puzzles, many of them more contemporary-minded, with younger, more adventurous constructors (though I knew of Kid CUDI before I ever saw him in a grid). With CUDI, though, unlike with IGA, the crosses all seem very fair. For the record, KIDCUDI (7) (full name) has still never been used in the NYTXW. Also for the record, Kid Cudi has appeared—three times—in NYTXW clues: for RAPPER ([Kid Cudi or Lil Baby, e.g.]), KID ([Rapper ___ Cudi or DJ ___ Loco]), and, "NITE" ([Kid Cudi's "Day 'n' ___"])
- 62A: Root word? (OLE) — i.e. the "word" you might use if you were "root"ing for someone (at a soccer match, or bullfight, I guess)
- 96A: ___ Moriarty, novelist who wrote "Big Little Lies" (LIANE) — didn't love one of the crosses here, either, specifically the "L"; real easy to imagine someone who has maybe heard of Big Little Lies but does not know the author's name ... [raises hand] ... and also is not that familiar with contemporary animated movies (LUCA). Any DIANE / DUCAs out there!?
- 111A: Some large structures for pet owners (CAT CONDOS) — cat interlude!
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| [we call the four-tiered structure Alfie's sleeping in a CAT CONDO—not sure the one-tier circular structure Ida's in qualifies as a full "condo." More of a cat pied-à-terre] |
- 10D: Italian diminutive suffix (-INO) — oy, wanted either -INI or -INA here, since THE ONE RING, as a phrase, doesn't really mean much to me. (I've seen the damned LOTR movies, I know about the ring, I just didn't remember the specific phrase THE ONE RING).
- 12D: Bear's counterpart on Wall Street, once (STEARNS): — gather round, kids, and I'll tell you about the *last* time the stock market crashed ... it was way back in aught-eight ...
- 14D: Tough customer for a wedding planner (BRIDEZILLA) — I know it's the name of a reality show and everything but I'm still not in love with this term, esp. when it's being passed off as an ordinary thing one might call a woman. Plays into stupid gender stereotypes. And there's no male equivalent. No GOLFZILLA, no Count Pick-up TRUCKULA, no Abominable Sports Fan ... the only emotion most dudes allow themselves to express publicly is anger, and yet it's the bride who's a -zilla? Sure.
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| [" A Novel By Ellis Bell"] |
- 21D: Cannabis variety contrasted with indica (SATIVA) — INDICA & SATIVA are here to stay, so may as well learn them if you don't know them already. Not that I know anything about this stuff, but ... SATIVA will tend to light you up, whereas INDICA will tend to chill you out.
- 39D: Show that, uh, didn't win 43 of its 54 Emmy nominations (LOST) — OK, I love this clue. It's legitimately funny, watching the clue try not to use the word "LOST" in the clue for LOST. Well, funny to me, anyway.
- 110D: Purple yam in Philippine cuisine (UBE) — a super-rare word in the crossword until Philippine cuisine went more mainstream here in the U.S. This is its third appearance in the last two years, after having been off-grid since 1990 (when it was clued as [Yamaguchi city])
P.S. Have you seen Sinners? You should see Sinners. On the big screen. With a crowd. As your leader, I command you. How does this relate to crosswords? Well, someday director Ryan COOGLER is gonna appear in the grid, perhaps after he wins the Best Director Oscar for Sinners, and you're gonna wanna be prepared.
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
[Follow Rex Parker on BlueSky and Facebook]
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113 comments:
i got naticked twice on this one: at IGA/MUKBANGS (i should've known MUKBANGS, now that i see it) and LIANE/LUCA (i actually *did* know LIANE and just forgot, given that DIANE is/seems to me like a more common name. it didn't help that DUCA is as likely an answer as LUCA [which i somehow didn't know])
The gimmick was easy, but MUKBANGS crossing IGA was brutal, for me.
Didn't want to turn laptop over, so just waited for enough crosses to suss the themers (after I realized math wasn't involved).
Saw "Sinners" - spoiler. It's a zombie movie. Couldn't care less. Maybe my apathy has to do with the theater - which, in daylight, didn't close the entry doors, so the movie was off in terms of dynamic range.
This was dire, because when a Sunday is too easy instead of a relaxing stretch of thinky time sipping coffee I just have to sit there plugging things in like a robot and wondering why I bother. Nothing wrong with this puzzle, liked seeing MUKBANGS and some of the other fill, but it reminds me of the reason I go long stretches skipping Sundays and I hope it's not the start of a trend.
I got naticked with MUKBANGS and IGA, but was able to run the alphabet for the solve.
Agree with OFL on Sinners! It's the best movie I've seen in the theater in ages, and really deserves to be seen on the biggest screen with the best sound possible!
No - not at all Rex. This was Highlights worthy trickery and dense enough to affect the overall fill. The themers were all decent but required no real work to get.
Uncle Tupelo
The wonky grid is littered with 3s and 4s - that center diagonal section is brutal. The EGGHEAD in me liked the GANDALF - ONE RING pair. Had more issue with the LUCA - LIANE cross than IGA. CREEPO is creepy.
Up, Up & Away
A slog.
Bill Withers
Me too, my one mistake.
No clue on the theme while solving. This made for a slow solve but had I known what the theme clues were the experience would have been that much worse. BIG SLEIGH BOSS? Insufferable and the rest are no better. I almost had a clean solve but I saved the middle letter of the tennis player's name for last. First I tried D then N and finally G. You learn something new and totally uninteresting every day and that goes for MUKBANG too.
I don’t solve on the app, so I saw just regular numbers as the theme clues. But it didn’t take me long at all to grasp the gimmick. The Bilbo clue confused me because I had TKO’D for KOED, and I interpreted it as “BILBO S.O.”, “significant other”. No clue if Bilbo even has a partner.
What I actually struggled a bit with was the NW, specifically what followed TRUTH and NOTA-something (which I wanted to be NOT A + 4-letter word). All because my clues for LOL and LMAO had strings of [?] instead of emojis.
Luckily I knew both IGA (as crosswordese) and MUKBANGS. LIANE really wanted to be either DIANE or DIANA but I knew LUCA was right.
Spoiler: it’s not a zombie movie
If the theater leaves the doors open (I have had that happen), close the friggin’ doors. Missing 30 seconds of dialogue is better than watching a washed-out image for two hours.
Ditto. Not my cup of tea, this one
https://crosswordfiend.com/2025/04/26/sunday-april-27-2025/#ny
I don’t mean to hijack your comment, but every time I try to start a new thread, the text entry window disappears.
We’ve had some good NYT Sunday crosswords this year. Sadly, this isn’t one of them.
Easy. All the hang-ups that OFL mentioned. I’m glad I was solving on my tablet; it’s a lot easier to turn upside-down than my monitor.
I sense this person will not care about the differences between zombies and vampires. A richer lode of critique might then be their reactionary dismissal of the whole literary and folk tradition of horror. Sinners explicitly uses African-American (and some Irish) folk culture--music and monsters--to dramatize Jim Crow racism and connect it to its past and present. If you don't care about the monsters, an inability to find a theme and a metaphor is the charitable interpretation.
Feel like this might have been more fun if the digits were regular, because it would be harder to suss out the theme and even afterward you'd have to translate the digits into the calculator font to parse the clues.
Oh, just for an instant, when I saw the clues with the numbers, I thought of doing the math, but nah.
Then I flashed on a brief scene from third grade, where someone showed me an upside-down calculator with the word meaning the opposite of heaven spelled in the display; my jaw dropped, and for a bit, it was the funniest and most amazing thing in the world.
I remember this scene clear as day even as I haven’t thought of it in many, many a decade. Hah! This memory thrust me right back into what it felt like to be me back then; it was like visiting a long-lost friend. I started remembering other moments from elementary school, then home scenes with my family, even songs we sang around the piano. For a brief interlude, tinged with pleasure and meaning, I was once again Little Me.
Thank you for that alone, Jacob, not to mention something else I realized while uncovering your fun puzzle, namely, that I have a talent – the ability to read text upside down as comfortably as rightside up. Maybe this comes naturally to everyone, but I never thought about it to the point of trying it out, until now. I picked out a book from the shelf, one by Zadie Smith, turned it upside down, started reading, and there was nary a hitch, even with words like “Churchillian”. Hah again!
Yours was one of those puzzles, Jacob, where the gratification of cracking riddles was padded with ancillary pleasures, raising its enjoyment immeasurably. Thank you!
In a flash, this puzzle went from 378163771 to 5376616.
I miss the days when the Sunday puzzle took some thought and sussing. These days, Sundays play like oversized Wednesdays.
I don’t know how to lock the orientation on my IPad app, so attempting to read the clues upside down was just making me dizzy. I ended up piercing things together from the crosses, but it wasn’t fun or interesting - It felt more like a homework assignment in a class that I really had no interest in.
I would nominate TIG to join CUDI and MUKBANGS for today’s trifecta of really ugly stuff.
I tend to get impatient with gimmick puzzles that emphasize style over substance, so it’s no surprise that I didn’t get along very well with this one, but I did stick it out to the very end - even though I had to slog my way through the LOTR stuff (GANDALF is LOTR, correct?) and the LIANE / LUCA crossing in the south.
I also had an issue with MUKBANGS crossing KANGA, as I’ve never heard of either one. I also had DIANE/DUCA. Like Rex said, why isn’t the editor addressing these problems?
Just a quick note on your Bridezilla comment, Groomzilla is also a term that is fairly used so there’s your male equivalent.
Didn’t like this puzzle. Bad vibes mostly. BRIDEZILLA was the lone bright spot. Always smile when I hear that one as I’ve known a few.
I actually tried one or two of the calculation formulas before grokking the theme. Add me to the MUKBANGS/IGA Total Natick Club. I think I first tried a “D” which seemed quite reasonable.
I get that racism was a theme. I grew up in Southern Illinois. Not long before my family moved there, there was a separate high school in town for Blacks - Attucks High School, if I recall correctly. Crispus Attucks.
That G was the last letter in for me, found by running the alphabet. Never a fun finish. On the other hand, I made the puzzle more interesting by completely ignoring the themers.
I turned my abacus upsidedown but it didn’t help.
Hey All !
Unlike Rex, didn't immediately see that the crazy numbers had to be read UPSIDE DOWN. Did have a vague, sneaky suspicion that something of that nature was afoot, but didn't concentrate on any particular number clue whilst going through the first run-through of Acrosses. Only when I hit the Revealer clue, did I go back and stand in my head to read the clues. 😁
Interesting to have a set of Themers in the third row (and their symmetrical counterparts), because you end up with those Big Corners that are quite tough to fill cleanly. But the fill in all four are remarkably good.
I never worry if fill is old or new. It's fill. Whatever you gotta do to get legitimate things to work in your grid is fine. Especially in a SunPuzGrid. Like Cudi. Who had ROCK there first? Like 87%? And yes, the G of MUKBANGS/IGA was my last letter in. Went N, R, G. Where's the grocery store chain when you need it?
Very neat and fun puz, Jacob. Zippy solve, neat trying to get the ole brain to read the clues backwards. Keeps the synapses firing.
Have a great Sunday!
Three F's
RooMonster
DarrinV
I’m really, really interested in this film, but I really, really, really hate horror movies. Last one I saw was “Get Out,” which was just about my limit. Anyone: Can someone who could barely handle “Get Out” make it through “Sinners”?
BRIDEZILLAs are a thing. Groomzillas are less of a thing. Doesn't mean every bride is a nightmare, or every groom is easy. But it's a thing, so let's just let it be a thing.
I also took a look at those clues and thought at first that I was supposed to break out the calculator and do some complicated math and then somehow try to decipher a written answer. I should have known that the Wednesday level Sunday wouldn't do that to me. BOOBS is more on brand for Sundays these days unfortunately.
Very easy once you got the one trick. Finished in 21:35
One Natick: "stayinaline" instead of STAYINALIVE (I didn't know SATIVA and forgot the song). Needed one cheat, to get MUKBANGS (did anyone know that?) and CUDI. I had 'bridesmama" before BRIDEZILLA, but ZIT fixed that. Interesting theme idea, but I still prefer themeless puzzles.
Credit to Jacob, who had a nine-letter bank to use – three vowels and six letters (including less-commonly used G, H, and B) – to come up with varied phrases that could be used as spot-on clues.
I tried to do the same, using the BEGHILOS bank, and concluded that Jacob did a remarkable job. Bravo, sir!
Yeah easy except for CUDI And IGA/MUKBANGS. I do love Rap but mostly the older stuff or maybe the most well known these days. I had to look up the MUKBANGS since had a very convincing D instead of K and could not figure out what the right letter would be. STAYIN ALIVE is “alive” and well on Instagram where lots of people make dance reels to it? That’s where my kiddo heard it. Very easy theme for Gen X, maybe not the younger crowd.
To the MUKBANGS/IGA LIANE/DIANE crossing I can add CUDO/UHOH as I had CODO/OHOH, as I'm more likely to say OHOH and either rap name is equally unknown.
Otherwise easy. Caught on at SANTACLAUS (hi OFL) and the others were pretty straightforward. No problem turning my sheet of paper UPSIDEDOWN and the CALCULATOR number/letters were bigger than the other clues, so a bonus there.
Side eye to CREEPO, URGED before EGGED, and hooray for UBE, If you're going to do a crossword, you should have some crosswordese.
Hey @Roo-about time KANGA got some love. Maybe a partial point there for you.
OK Sunday, JR, and I Just Remembered a question that has always puzzled me--can a stunt puzzle be a stunt puzzle if it only has one stunt? Thanks for a fair amount of fun.
I was so annoyed at this theme that I shrugged when filling in MUKBANGS and CUDI, thinking "If I get a DNF, who cares?" I suspected but wasn't sure that we were looking at calculator typings but unlike Rex, I failed to read them backwards and it wasn't until post-solve that I went behind my laptop and looked at those clues that I finally got what they said. Certainly, no calculator of mine could get those readouts (and I tried).
The Bear clue for STEARNS successfully misled me for a while until enough crosses filled. The LIANE/LUCA cross was a WOE for me but I couldn't imagine any Pixar films titled dUCA so LIANE it was.
Rex is correct, the puzzle was mostly easy, even solved as an unclued themeless as I did. And it is a clever idea. Thanks, Jacob Reed.
SANTACLAUS was the gift that kept on giving. Who de CUDI? Hand up for dIANE/dUCA.
So I hit the first theme clue, managed to make out BIG SLEIGH BOSS from the patchy, faint, garbled and distorted clue, and wrote in SANTA CLAUS. Then I clapped myself on the back for seeing the trick so quickly...and put the puzzle down.
Question: Do you think an oversized grid with a plethora of visually patchy, faint, garbled and distorted clues is what you want to contend with six days after cataract surgery -- a time when your vision is just beginning to recover from being patchy, faint, garbled and distorted?
I assure you it's not. I might not have wanted to bother with this even on a perfectly normal day, but on a day like today it's not at all what I consider fun.
I, for one, didn’t have a clue about the numbers until I got to the revealer. Easy enough to fill out all the answers except the G in IGA, but it was an interesting concept with massive constraints. Well done.
The IMAMAC ads comprised a brilliant campaign with great casting of John Hodgman as the PC nerd and Justin Long the laid back, cool guy Mac. The humor perfectly reinforced the real and perceived differences of Apple vs. Windows. (Apropos to today’s puzzle, inferiority complex PC was trying to claim the “fun” apps that come with his. “Calculator! Oh, we also have Clock!”)
Good stuff!
I agree that "reading upside down" made this super easy.
But, I'm troubled by the "spaces" used ("/"; ".", "+", "-".). Made me think (initially) that I had to "divide" the "SLEIGH.BOSS" into "BIG" and "subtract' the "O" from "BILBO" and so on.
If you're going to use math (and, as a mathematician, I'm always happy when a constructor does that!), use it correctly. Those "/.-+" have (literal) meaning.
shockingly easy and uninteresting, flying by, until the endgame of filling in short minutia that is just know it or don’t. I dunno what we’re doing here. Mo fun and no reward.
Seems like GANDALF should have been clued as "Accomplice on the 0-5.08718 caper".
What a mini-theme: KISSABLE BUNS with STILETTOS! I guess @Gary Jugert will get his MUCKBANGS off on that! I've also got to give kudos to the krazy kross of KISSABLE KOED.
I feel like ESAI is saying "See. All I hear is AYO this and AYO that and isn't AYO just the greatest? But where's f'ing AYO when you need a four letter name with some wacky vowel arrangement?" Well, I personally breathed ESAI of relief when I saw the Morales dude show up today.
And speaking of IGA, I'll bet @Nancy knows that there's another tennis player named IvA (Majoli). I used to stay with her when her parents went out. Sometimes I'd even get a little high when I SATIVA.
My experience was similar to @Rex's. Saw the trick immediately and that was that. A one trick pony. But a nice theme idea. Thanks, Jacob Reed.
Naticked on CUDI — seemed more likely CoDI, crossing the equally plausible oHOH.
Depends on what you find scary. Lots of blood, some gore and jump scares in Sinners, less suspense and psychological horror. Both movies excel at building tension in the first half.
Same here -I also naticked on OHOH/ CODI
Part of my Sunday puzzle solve is to predict Rex's opinion. (Of course, Rex dislikes most Sundays now, so statistically... easy-peasy.) I was puzzled by the theme for a short while before turning the page upside-down -- SANTACLAUS initially drew a "huh?" as I tried to "do the math".
Lots of PPP, agreed. We watch a lot of tennis, so IGA was a gimme. MUKBANG, CUDI, et al., not so much!
Lewis you are a freak of nature in a great way.
Knew IGA, but Naticked on what I guessed was dIANE (the obvious answer there) crossing dUCA (had no clue for that one).
Villager
Part of my Sunday puzzle solve is to predict Rex's opinion. (Of course, Rex dislikes most Sundays now, so statistically... easy-peasy.) I was puzzled by the theme for a short while before turning the page upside-down -- SANTACLAUS initially drew a "huh?" as I tried to "do the math".
Lots of PPP, agreed. We watch a lot of tennis, so IGA was a gimme. MUKBANG, CUDI, et al., not so much!
Swipe down the right top corner of the screen to open control center hit the lock icon to freeze the screen orientation
While this was an impressive feat of construction, I found it to be convoluted & didn't have the patience so I solved as a themeless (WOES-MUKBANGS, TIG, CUDI).
Sorry about the work emergency on a Sunday Rex :(
I resent Rex’s “Who didn’t see this immediately?” gripe/question since many of us did not. Once you found it though, it did feel easy, but I too hesitated on Mukbang/Iga (guessed that one right) and got killed on Diane/Duca and Cudi (just had no idea). So I liked the theme but not the uninferable crosses and random people I just didn’t know.
This took me back to the days long ago when I would attempt to do the Sunday NYT puzzle each week (it ran in my local paper in the "Funnies" section). I would complete the grid, but there would always be 2-4 letters that I was unsure of/unfamiliar with and, when I checked the answers at least one of those would be wrong. So, after struggling through this grid (no, Rex, not all of us figured out the upside down calculator letters at the start), I was left, like the old days, with MUKBANG/IGA and INO/ONERING and LIANE/LUCA and CUDI. And I said "forget about it."
@Ride the Reading: Do NOT let this "Jacke" person succeed in bullying, browbeating, or tut-tutting you into watching horror flicks if you don't choose to. The nerve! The unmitigated gall! I have avoided -- as I know I've mentioned on this blog more than once -- horror films, books, et al my entire life. I've been almost 100% successful -- and when I haven't been, when there was something I didn't see coming, I've had the great good sense to snap my eyes closed.
Nothing "reactionary" about it, Jacke. Just avoiding things I can't "unsee" once I've seen them -- things that might give me nightmares. I've always regarded people who seek out such gratuitously unpleasant things to be, well, rather perverse. But I've also been tactful enough not to tell them that.
Easy but I kinda cheated. When I opened up the puzzle on my iPad I Immediately (hi @Rex) saw that the theme clues were upside down calculator displays. So I loaded the printable version on my laptop, rotated it and copied down the theme clues. That made the solve a whole lot less annoying.
I did not know CUDI, LUCA, and MUBANGS (fortunately like @Rex I knew IGA from previous xwords).
Cute idea, reasonably smooth grid with bit of sparkle, and more fun than it might have been for me. Mostly liked it.
Lewis, I enjoyed your comments as much as the puzzle :)
Rex: Thanks for the great picture of Alfie and Ida (made my day). It’s a cat’s world; we just live in it.
I live amongst HILLBILLIES, wimpy hillbillies I suppose, 'cuz the BOOZE of choice is Coors Light, (Coors "slight") empties litter the roads in the otherwise bucolic countryside! Oops, forgot the roaring belching pickup trucks, wish they'd PICK UP after themselves.
Kinda fun puzzle where already having figured out the gimmick made getting the revealer easy. Like @Lewis, the first time I saw this effect—on an old Sony hand calculator—it was a lively realization. Made for a good memory here. Will having learned MUKBANG and CUDI help me in future puzzles?—guess that remains to be seen…
This “Jacke” person (as you so contemptuously put it) is far more interesting and far less smugly self important than you are. Calling millions and millions of people (particularly Black people) with different taste from you “perverse,” that is something. On brand tho.
I found this puzzle’s fill to be fresh, fun, and engaging - to each their own. Loved MUKBANGS (even if I had to get a few crosses to confirm the spelling), EMILYBRONTE as clued, THEONERING, and TOPBANANA. And I’ll second the commenter who noted that Groomzillas are very much a real phenomenon.
Worst puzzle ever. Been doing these for 70 years and this gigametamega-gimmick mess Was. The. Worst. Close it down.
Black people????? I'm discussing avoiding horror flicks. Plenty of white people like horror flicks. I don't know what in earth Black people have to do with the argument that I'm making. And the argument I'm making is that no one should be bullied or browbeaten into watching horror flicks if they don't want to. Absolutely no one! Ever!
Add me to the DNF list
MUKBANGS/IGA
CUDI/UHOH
LIANE/LUCA - this one I could guess.
This would have been a cute theme on a Monday or Tuesday. Doing it on a Sunday grid turns it into a slog.
Would have been a personal Sunday record for me except for the MUKBANGS/IGA cross which I had as MUKBANdS/IdA. Took me a good few minutes to chase that one down. But add me to the list of people who spotted the gimmick instantly... I think you have to have been of an age to have a calculator in the classroom when you were a 5th grader and thought typing in 5318008 and turning it upside down was just the height of hilarity.
Easy, once I caught on to SANTA CLAUS. After that, it became a sort of rote exercise, with the exception of the pleasure of writing in EMILY BRONTE and overall admiration for writing clues with such limited resources. I also smiled at KISSABLE x BRIDEZILLA.
I join the triple DNF list with IdA, oHOH, and dIANE.
Now it seems that I’m gonna spend the next few hours with STAYIN’ ALIVE as an ear worm (just ran into that one in a crossword recently, but I think it might have been deep in the archives). Like Rex’s daughter, I got that one later—obviously know the song and know that the Bee Gees are a thing, but took me several crosses to put together the familiar song with the band. Guess I’ll remember it now.
Ditto. Plus I had CODI / OHOH instead of CUDI / UHOH. A crossword is supposed to test your ability to find solutions, not your knowledge of esoterica. This one was a combination of boringly easy and simply impossible. There's no excuse for publishing such a terrible puzzle.
I can't stand on my head, due to GERD (which, BTW, I don't recall ever seeing in the NYXW), but the acrosses were so easy to infer that I just ignored the silly theme game.
OTOH, MUKMUK BANGBANG IGIGOIGYLUCADUKADEE! Sing it. Whistle it, DIANE -- oops, I mean LIANE.
IGA/MUKBANGS was a 100% Natick for me, as noted by Rex.
STAYIN ALIVE is a lifesaver of a song. Its 103/104 bpm tempo is exactly right for the pulses of CPR, and everybody with any musical ear at all can replicate the tempo in their mind.
I had no idea what those numbers were and this puzzle was way too hard for me.
Then I hit 105 and 106 and it became the easiest Sunday puzzle ever.
I quite liked this puzzle. I only remember 5318008.07734 (apologies for the sophomoric, non-SB-accepted word). Fun to see the theme clues that Jacob came up with. Solid set, well done.
Surprised that CUDI was a debut. I know IGA as a grocery store and as the tennis player sometimes seen in xwords instead of the grocery store. Happy to see MUKBANGS as a debut, not that I watch any of it. I do watch plenty of food travel shows, since the Anthony Bourdain days. I'm also a fan of Sohla and Ham from the NYT Cooking channel on YouTube. They once had UBE as a mystery ingredient challenge, but my favorite video is where they make a Home Alone gingerbread house, complete with functioning booby traps.
@CDilly52 Enjoyed your late post yesterday :)
Yes! But what needs to be closed down is this series of "editors", who exhort us to "play the puzzle" rather than "solve the puzzle".
These puzzles belong on a family restaurant placemat. Get out the CRAYOLAS!
I was going to say, if the Times allowed themes like this on Monday or Tuesday (I’m not sure they do) it would have been a good fit there.
Got the numbers instantly as I taught myself to read and write upside down as a bored left handed 6th grader (writing upside down as a leftie means you don’t drag your hand through your writing.) I got stuck on the LUCA /LIANA cross and mired in the ESE. But I did know MUKBANGS. One interesting factoid about them (as I’ve been led to believe) is that they started because the cultural norm in S. Korea is to eat with others. So when children would leave for college they would video chat with family while eating. Not a big leap to see how this would lead to public broadcasts (and all the extremes that develop due to trying to get views)
@Lewis 7:26 am, nice one!
In Across Lite the theme clues just had regular numbers, but I had glanced at the web site page and saw what was going on. I was able to mentally flip the numbers... much easier than physically flipping my 24 inch monitor or standing on my head. (Oh!!... I just realized... I could have used a hand mirror.)
The Unknown Names were annoying here: MUKBANGS CUDI LIAN LUCA. Plus multiple Lord of the Rings clues; not my fave.
Is it just me? The theme is NOT “upside down”.,.it’s “backwards”
No!?
Nice one!
I (36 year old) also knew right away I needed to read the clue upside down, but do calculators still look like this anymore? Or would this entire theme be impossible to decipher if you were Gen Z or Gen Alpha? Made me wonder not if kids aren’t spelling boobs (or boobies, or boobless) in middle school anymore, but if calculators still look like that.
The most fun thing about this puzzle in the print edition was turning the page over and entering all the answers upside down. That added a little dexterity challenge.
can someone tell
me how an 8 minute solve is enjoyable shouldn’t puzzle solving be a pleasure lasting longer than an ice cream cone? i don’t know how to make that possible without making the solve impossibly hard but i for one would like to enjoy the solve for more than an 8 minute rush
Got SANTACLAUS without any contribution from its numeric(al) clue. Sooo ... no puztheme-grokkin gift from SANTA, there. Had to peek ahead to the bottom revealer regions for help.
In retrospect, I seem to recall this numbers-upside-down trick from some other puz of long ago ... but ain't got no solid proof on that. Mighta just been just a one clue/answer trick, rather than a whole nother puztheme. Anybody else have that feelin?
staff weeject picks: IGA & TIG. Kinda frightens the M&A, tho -- I had just gotten to where I can remember AYO ... now I've got these additional weeject memory challengers.
honrable mention to: IAL.
MUKBANGS, huh? Learned of somethin new there. Always great to learn such valuable info. Ditto for CUDI.
other faves: CATCONDO [mainly cuz of @RP's resultin catphoto postin]. BRIDEZILLA. The Super-Jaws of Sundayness black squares, center-top/bottom.
Thanx 4 doin them numbers on us, Mr. Reed dude. Had a pretty good time and an [at least short-lived] ahar puztheme moment.
Plus: 8 themers and 2 revealers. Some sufferin clearly went into constructioneerin this rodeo.
Masked & Anonym007Us
... now, let's just go crazy ... [plus, it's MEE upside down] ...
"Runtpuz Crazy Quilt" - 7x7 12 min. crazy runt puzzle:
**gruntz**
M&A
I also thought it was fresh, fun and engaging. Good first puzzle! Thank you!
Short comment from me today. Didn't like this puzzle. Never carried a calculator, didn't do those tricks. Was a bit confused by the numerical clues so I did something i rarely do, skipped down to the revealer and then ploddded through the grid, mostly successfully. Trouble spots were the same as most other solvers, apparently. MUCKBANGS crossing IGA, LIANE/LUCA. Embarrassing because my wife has at least one of Ms. Moriarty's books hanging around.
While reading te comments, my phone dinged with a news alert and I, like a Pavlovian dog, checked it. Apparently, while I was watching a hockey game last night instead of the news, some deranged person chose to chose to drive his SUV through a Filipino street festival, killing 11 people (one report said 9, another 11), and injuring numerous others.
In Canada. In La La Land Vancouver. WTF!?
I initially turned down my roommate's invitation to see Get Out, because "I don't watch horror movies." She (who had seen it before) cajoled me, saying it wasn't really a horror movie. I relented and was so glad I did. I spent days afterwards letting her laugh at me when bits of the movie percolated back to me. I too had to go see it again.
So if the recommendations and anti-recommendations here add up to "Sinners is a bit like Get Out," that's a recommendation for me.
Not really into writing a separate comment today but you pretty much summed up how I felt. Thanks for the affirmation!
As a church organist, I have dealt with my share of BRIDEZILLAs. But apparently they don't get married in churches any more, so I almost miss them, or at least my bank account does. Last one I had wanted all music from Twilight for the instrumental selections. I had to watch the movie to find out just how bad an idea this is. The plot is creepier than Lohengrin. The music, of course, is all under copyright so I couldn't play it. I suggested replacements that sounded similar, to me, initially she said OK, but called me up at 4:30 in the morning the day of her wedding to demand something-or-other else. The check did not bounce. All's well that ends well.
Oh, the puzzle. EMILYBRONTE was the first themer I got, I had no idea why. It wasn't until 105A started looking like UPSIDEDOWN that I thought to flip my magazine. I ended in the northwest; there were a few individual squares that were blank at that point, most of which I should have gotten. The 'L' on LOST/LOAN, where I should have thought of LOAN. The 'L', again, on LIANE/LUCA. I knew IGA, she's great.
When you read upside down, you read backwards because left-to-right switches. But the clues can't work if it's just backwards, because (eg) 6 has to be upside down (and backwards) to look like a letter G. So yes, upside down!
Edgar Allen Poe, H.P. Lovecraft, Mary Shelley, and Bram Stoker -- just for starters -- would have a few things to say about Nancy's self-righteous diatribe against (so-called) "horror" stories and the films that arose from them. There's a place -- an honored, important place -- in storytelling for narratives that compel us to confront our fears and superstitions -- and our uncertainties about the "times" we live in, whatever/whenever those "times" may be -- in a way that both triggers and, ultimately, palliates them. For that matter, the dragons, demons, fiends, and other unworldly/ungodly entities that populate the rituals and ceremonies of indigenous peoples the world over fulfill basically the same function. Not sure why culturally literate people would find that acknowledgement so off-putting.
For the record, I fully support not watching horror movies. I was reacting, perhaps polemically, to not caring about them. I care about many things I don't want to watch. Videos of terrorism, war, accidents and such are in that category. And I do think that, although Sinners is just a movie about racism (and other things) rather than an actual recording of it, the same principle holds. You shouldn't watch it if you can't stomach it, but to not care seems to diminish the experience of all those who can't choose to simply not see. The victims in those videos I avoid watching didn't have a choice. I care. (And thank you, Anonymous.)
Yeah, saw the calculator numbers and turned the magazine UPSIDE DOWN, read through the clues, zero tricks on the theme answers, although I thought
the concept (and the theme answers, Ellis Bell anyone??) skewed a bit older. Like, these days there must be people who have never seen that kind of calculator display. The numbers on my phone calculator are rounded. My millennial aged kids had some horrifically expensive graphing calculators required for high school, but I can imagine them looking at this and calling it "eight-bit". If you remember 8-bit. It's now an art style. I didn't enter a quilting contest that asked for an 8-bit design. Recently saw an 8-bit stitching pattern, though.
Anyway, overall this was just too easy. But I think WS&co. do that on purpose? So people who may be newer to solving can feel proud, wow, I solved a Sunday NYT crossword (we won't show them the New Yorker cartoon with the Saturday puzzle framed over the fireplace).
Horrible story. Our hearts are with our friends in Canada.
Disagree with Rex on I’M A MAC for “Line in old Apple ad”. (79 down). Loved that clue & wrote in the answer right away with hardly any crosses. Immediately remembered those commercials where an Apple guy (dressed in jeans & casual shirt) would verbally spar with a PC guy (dressed in a suit). I forget exactly what they said but it always came around to sounding like Apple was the better computer. Note: I watched broadcast TV and they were prolific there; I don’t know if they ran on cable (I think this was a little before the streaming days).
OTH I naticked at both the places Rex mentioned. CODi could be a rapper (although “ohoh” for the down isn’t so great on my part). And at 96 a+d I fell for Diane instead of LIANE. Didn’t know either one and the “d” spellings seemed plausible; especially “Diane”.
Intended for Les S. More, obviously. Sorry.
Ahar! Found that other puz with a somewhat similar theme. It had clues and answers such as:
{5338} = BEES.
{370} = OLE.
…etc.
It was the NYTPuz of Thursday, 7 Sept. 2006, by Lucy Gardner Anderson.
Had six U’s in it, btw.
M&A Research Lab
Sinners discussion
I think this thread went off the rails
Back in the 1960’s when it was much harder for Black directors to get their movies seen, George Romero, a white director with a very open mind came out with the Night of the Living Dead which had LOTS of zombies. However, he also dealt with racism in a startling way for his timeThe final scene in some ways was more horrifying than the rest ether movie and had nothing to do with zombies. So it is a horror movie with a powerful political ending. But it still is (very much) a horror movie Nancy clearly stated she can’t stand them. I would never recommend it to her! That should end the discussion. To imply that she is somehow being racist based on what she said is absurd.
BTW I saw Romero’s movie back then and really enjoyed it. I even saw it several times thereafter. But I doubt I could watch it now. I have grown to avoid horror in my old age. As it happened I watched part of Get Out but could not watch the whole thing. I would agree that it is not really a full blown horror movie. But I doubt if Nancy would like it.
“Nope” by the same director is more my speed. I watched the whole movie and liked it a lot. But I wouldn’t recommend it to Nancy either. People should not confuse genre with politics.
Wow. Here’s one for us geezers. I remembered instantly how fun we all thought it was to do “number codes” on our very first digital hand held calculators. Whatever the mechanism is to create numbers from the little dashes created in those early 1970s calculators with LED display with a limited mantissa of 6-8 (I am certain it wasn’t 10) characters. My husband - math and music teacher Had. To. Have! the first he found that was “affordable.” The offer came with our credit card bill and for only $100 (in 1970 funds of two college students) you could get the “first hand held calculator with memory.” No functions beyond arithmetic, but with the memory component, he did some impressive things.
I always said that law school was for smart people who just can’t do math. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it. He literally wore that little gadget out, and I lost count of how much we spent (and how quickly!) on the ensuing generations all the way up through the TI programmables, one of the more complex of which our daughter used in high school for advanced algebra and trig. So this collection if calculators starts in 1970 and runs through 1996. Add to that all of the home computers we have owned from the first Radio Shack “Trash 80” to my husband’s passing in 2018 and we have had a technology graveyard second to none.
I would just take my pens and yellow pads and sticky notes, scratch my head and go do lawyer things.
Well, I did do one thing with the calculators. Early on, I saw the upside down letters by accident one day sitting across from him at breakfast. Some long number that ended .008 clearly looked like it was saying BOO. So, I started leaving him messages exactly as did our constructor today. It took him from breakfast through dinner the first time I typed in 07734 to figure out HELLO. By dinner time I had to tell give him a hint: “it’s a code and you know if I made it up, it’s not going to be numbers.” As homer would say, “Doh!”
Anyway, the theme for me was ell done, certainly took some time to get a grid that accommodated the very limited words available using a non-alphanumeric calculator keyboard. Fun to solve though and I was really impressed with the Bolshoi shoes. Impressive constructing for sure and very Sunday.
Other than that, thanks to all who read my post yesterday and extra thanks for the kind comments. As some of you long timers are aware, this has been a very challenging year-plus for me.
Yesterday’s story is the first I have shared in a long time. But I am back to working on my anthology of short stories, and able actually to have the bandwidth to write. Healing is damn hard work. It indeed takes a village and I am so grateful for this neighborhood of folks who share and are willing to share about this passion of ours. My daily visits have been part of my getting back to a new normal - again. I honestly have occasional dreams about walking in to a new coffee shop and finding many of you there.
Ditto... two naticks is two too many.
I am a total wimp when it comes to horror but I reallly wanted to see Sinners. It was not exactly ‘scary’ for me, lots of spurting blood and such. I do want to say with no exaggeration that it has one of the absolute best scenes I have ever seen in a movie in my life. Cannot stop thinking about it in a good way, not in a nightmare way.
I'd listen to your stories all day, @CDilly! Such a vibrant memory of things past. My memory usually goes vamoose when I try to recall stories of things in my past. Let me know when that anthology comes out. 😁
RooMonster Listening Guy
Wedding planner here. Almost never encounter bridezillas. Momzillas on the other hand ...
I agree. I think what makes IGA not great fill as used here as that even if you DO know her name, as I did (apparently absorbed by osmosis from headlines, since I don't really follow tennis anymore) you don't necessarily know how to spell it. I'm looking at you here, Ayo Edebiri. I also think there's a decent, if tough, alternative way to clue this based on the IGA independent grocery chain. Same kind of thing with LUCA--is it not a minority of Pixar films that are NOT coming of age stories? So we are ruling out--what? The Good Dinosaur and Up? I started with COCO here, before getting some crosses and remembering that LUCA was a film I had seen go by on Netflix.
Agree completely re Bridezilla. Rossed with kissable, started feeling creeped out.
Check out Kid Cudi's (Scott Mescudi) stint on the IFC show, "Comedy Bang Bang" (on the yutube ). He's fun, funny, and crossword-worthy, IMHO.
Liked it. Creative and fun to solve.
I filled in this puzzle without ever turning it upside down. I didn’t need a calculator. It had nothing to do with a numbers game. I thought it was kinda stupid.
MUKBANGS? MUKBANGS??!! MUKBANGS??!?!?!????!!!?!???!?!!?!?!!!! Thank goodness I knew IGA.
Oooh. If we had to do the math, then invert, I probably would have enjoyed this a lot more.
I got Naticked at both IGA *and* CUDI. Turns out, OHOH and CODI looked more plausible to me.
I didn't see what was going on right away, and didn't even try. I just filled in the clues I could read. Got to the bottom, and saw what was going on, then I went back and read those undecipherable clues upside down. Yes, that made those answers very very easy to get. But I'm in my 70's and I can become dizzy just by standing up too fast. So, I am not going to want to repeatedly turn my paper upside down in order to read those clues. Sorry, not sorry!
My biggest problem nowadays, is getting my synapses firing on all cylinders. It just takes longer than it used to, whether the puzzle is easy, medium, or hard. My brain is becoming more like an old steamer. The water has to reach the boiling point before the car will move.
FOGGY & LOST
I'M STAYIN'ALIVE ON MOONSHINE,
I smoke SATIVA BY THE pound;
THATSAID, it's ARRANGED when I DINE
with TOPBANANAs UPSIDEDOWN.
--- RICH HART
Ah, fun with inverted numbers. Takes you back. Some clever apps this time. Birdie.
Wordle bogey.
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